Tracking parcels sent to China

[s_mack]

Hello.

I know this is odd and probably not the best place for this. I am desperate. I have searched the Internet for help and finally thought I'd try to get help from an ordinary person living in Mainland China. I have gone through all the normal channels.

I'll back up. My name is Steven. I live in Canada and I'm trying very hard to get a new business off the ground. I have invested my life savings into this. Part of the project involves some manufacturing in China. The electrical components were very hard to find, and they were available in Germany.

So I had these components shipped directly from Germany to a company in China back on June 6th and it was supposed to arrive in 3 to 6 business days. The shipment went via DHL. Unfortunately, DHL says it is no longer their problem once it arrives in the destination country. I found out that after it arrives in China, it is handled either by EMS or by China Post.

The DHL tracking information says it arrived in China on the 16th of June. On the EMS site, it says it left German on the 12th but does not acknowledge arriving in China at all. An investigation on the German side indicated it is in China but perhaps at the customs office.

Sadly, the Chinese company it is going to is not willing to help me track it down. And I can not call EMS (the phone number can only be dialed from Mainland China) and when I called China Post I could not manage to get anyone that spoke English and unfortunately I can not speak any Chinese dialect at all.

My feeling is that there is just poor communication and the Chinese Post / Customs is holding the parcel until money is paid but for some reason they never told the receiving company. I'm not asking anyone to spend any money!! All I hope for is someone can make a few phone calls and help me find my package.

If it is lost, I will probably lose my house The package is not worth very much money, but it is part of a larger project that is being delayed because of this. This business is just starting and I can't afford to lose the money.

Maybe is someone willing to help? If so, contact me and I can provide you with the tracking number and hopefully you can phone China Post and help me locate the parcel. I will gladly give US$100.00 via PayPal to a person that helps, after the package is located and successfully delivered to the company in China.

I hope someone will help. Thank you very much.

- Steven

[Long Zhiren]

If I were you, I'd get a visa and get ready to hunt it down myself.

Determine precisely which post office it would have gone to.

Could it be impounded because it is hardware of a technical nature?

Perhaps somebody needs to go in person to receive it.

If it's as bad as the post offices here in Sunnyvale, California, no amount of phone calls or email is going to help. Both places are somewhat communist, so I expect kind of the same. You'd have to make repeated trips in person to the post office. (Repeated because some shifts have folks who have a better idea of what's going on.) Prepare to spend many hours in each visit, because there are long queus in communist places. China's getting a lot better in regards to queues though. In my experience, sometimes it takes repeated trips over the course of a month to find something, even though it's been somewhere in the one post office the entire time. After it's found, they don't tell you where they found it or who they spoke to. The next time, is therefore a similar exercise in anguish.

It also helps to have enough patience to determine if it's been sent back to the sender. The sender is more reliable in disclosing this information than the post office.

Next time, try a courier and/or make sure the thing is insured.

[s_mack]

Thanks, but I'd like to hear from someone actually in mainland China that can help.

It was sent via courier (DHL) and whether or not it is insured doesn't really matter... I need it found.

This is the second parcel that got lost on its way to China. The first was found after a single phone call to the Chinese EMS service. But this time it has something to do with customs so EMS has not received it yet. Its like its stuck in between.

I'm certain it can be resolved with a couple of phone calls to the right place. I just have no means to do that from here and the receiver in China is not willing to help for whatever reason.

Thanks.

- Steven

[npchina]

Hello Steven:

I am sorry to hear your story, I can feel your frustration. I think in order for someone to help you, could you provide more info? For ex: where did the packet(shipment) was going to? You dont have to be very specific if you don't one, but at lest the City or City district and as well the last place were the packet was 'seen'?

That would allow anyway to see if we can do something for you.

All the best in your Search

npchina@gmail.com

[elina]

The shipment went via DHL. Unfortunately, DHL says it is no longer their problem once it arrives in the destination country. I found out that after it arrives in China, it is handled either by EMS or by China Post.

We ourselves have not used DHL, but it’s said DHL has its own delivery team in different countries, it’s strange they transfer your goods to EMS or China Post.

[johnd]

Sorry about your situation. You said your package is not worth very much, but your house depends on it. How about you consider sending a replacement package, and make sure the shipping company doesn't pass it on to China Post or EMS, so that you can maintain reliable tracking. I can't say I've seen any DHL vans on the street in Shenzhen, but I have seen many Fedex and a few UPS.

[simonlaing]

I hope you had insurance.

Was whatever you had in the box a piece of high tech? The reason I asked is that a Friend who used to work for Siemens, told me when ever they ordered Prototypes no matter how they sent it, or how much insurance they had 1 out of 10 prototypes would go missing on the way to the Chinese factory.

Several months later Bird, or Huawei or another would come out with a model which looked very similar to the lost prototype. There was obviously a person getting some money to "lose" the package to one of their rivals.

He said the problem was very severe.

I am not sure if this affects you but it could be something.

Also I have had lots of delays on Shipping to China, it might be being transfered to a place to get the english translated to a Chinese address (characters) (also if it didn't have the post code it was usually lost even if it had the right charcters) so it can be further sent on. Getting there in person or some one follow it up for you. They like to deal with live people, over the phone it will be difficult, Online I have always struggled with the tracking software.

Good luck,

Simon:)

[rthryip]

Here is the DHL China website http://www.cn.dhl.com/publish/cn/zh.high.html?gclid=CKf2kNmXyZQCFQdWegodwHwpkQ.

If your destination is a metropolis in mainland China, DHL will handle this but I believe your partner company is in small city. So DHL will transfer it to EMS.

If you can get answers from DHL China, things would be easier.

Good luck to you.

[Smafy]

Hi, Steven, i am really sorry about your story.

I think maybe it's because of the Olympic.

Now, all the parcels containing electronic goods must be checked in special procedure, and it's a bit troublesome.

I hope i can help you, i have sent you a Private Message on line. Please check it.

[s_mack]

Thank you very much for your replies! I did not get an email so I didn't know anyone posted.

Some answers:

More details? Yes, i can provide details no problem. The package was sent from Germany around the 6th of June to Xifang Industrial Area Beizhan,Humen Dongguan, Guangdong, P.R. China It was sent via DHL. The original tracking number was 46.136 418.573 8 but that only works on DHL Germany's system and all it says is that it entered the "destination country" on the 16th of June. DHL Germany then gave me an "International Identifier" number, which works on the EMS website and it is: CL636775755DE According to EMS with this number it is still in Germany on the 12th of June. DHL Germany did an investigation but all they could say is that it is "likely" in customs in China. Possibly waiting for payment of taxes, but for some reason nobody on the receiving end (in China) has been told anything. They are not very helpful and will not phone around and help. It is probably sitting in a warehouse at the Chinese customs office waiting for payment of taxes, but that is just my guess.

Value? Insured? Send replacement? It is not worth very much, but the company that makes them is closed for the summer and I cannot get replacements until it is too late. I don't know if it is insured or not but that hardly matters - it is only a few hundred dollars but it is holding up a project worth a lot more, and you can not insure for that. I have been searching every day for replacement parts.

What is it? Its not high-tech. They are simply plastic connectors for a wiring harness as well as the metal pins. They are worthless to anyone else, and they are only "special" because they are not used for very many things. I wish we didn't have to use them because they are so hard to find.

I've been able to find some at different stores in Germany, but only a few dozen at a time and at 5 to 10 times the price. I need 1100 to get to this factory in China soon. That is what is in the box.

Thank you.

[s_mack]

Ok, the parcel is lost forever

So now I need help sending the replacement.

Since this was actually the 2nd parcel lost to this address (the first was found after a few days), I thought that maybe the Chinese company gave me a poorly formatted address. This is what they gave me:

DONGGUAN YACENTER ELECTRIC CO., LTD

Xifang Industrial Area Beizhan,Humen Dongguan, Guangdong,China

Zip Code.:523925

But from researching, I think it should be more clear and perhaps this is better:

Dongguan Yacenter Electric Co., Ltd

Xifang Industrial Park, Beizha Village

Humen Town, Dongguan City

523925 Guangdong

P.R. China

I found other companies in the same Xifang Industrial area (but they call it "park") but they write it as "Beizha" not "Beizhan" and some add "village". Some international postal guides suggest adding "Town" and "City" and to always put the zip code immediately before the province. And they say to ALWAYS address it as "P.R. China" and not simply "China" because it is ambiguous and could refer to Taiwan (R O C).

Does this sound correct?

Also, I read it is very helpful to mark the box with traditional Chinese characters representing the address instead of just English/Pinyin. This is what I hope someone here can help with. Maybe someone can write the above address how you would write it in Chinese, and then scan it and send me the image? So that I may print it and put it on the box.

I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

- Steven

[imron]

Actually, you don't want traditional characters. On mainland China they use simplified characters.

[s_mack]

Sorry, I meant traditional as in non-romanized. But whatever they use... I just want to make sure it doesn't get lost again!

- Steven

[simonlaing]

Do they have their web page, perhaps where you are sending can scan their address for you.

Many characters have the same romanized pinyin spelling , so converting directly from the pinyin is tricky.

Good luck,

Simon:)

[s_mack]

Just an update in case anyone is curious.

The parcel that was shipped over 50 days ago... it finally arrived in China from Germany today.

Severely damaged!

However, at least some of the parts are good and we can now get the project back on track. I am so very relieved.

Thanks again for the kind help.

- Steven

[Smafy]

Congratulations.

So, who is responsible to that?

Why was it delayed?

[s_mack]

They did not give me any information really.

From the pictures, it looks like a bomb exploded! I don't know if China customs destroyed it looking for illegal drugs or if DHL dropped it from a crane. Or maybe it was UNDER the truck for 2 months driving around the China country side. No idea

DHL won't even refund the shipping money because "ontime delivery is not guaranteed to China". Ok, but there's "on time" and then there's 2-months late.

I hate DHL.

- Steven

[889]

Dongguan is not far from Hong Kong -- which has a very reliable postal system and efficient customs -- so if you'll be sending more packages to the factory, maybe you can route them to HK. According to this website, which has the Dongguan address in Chinese, the factory's part of a group which has an office in Hong Kong. They may well route their own international mail through the HK office.

http://www.liandung.com.tw/T/body.php?web=1